Francisco Mejia had four RBI, and Ji-Man Choi and Wander Franco added two a piece on Saturday night as the Tampa Bay Rays took back first place in the American League East with a 9-5 victory over the Boston Red Sox at Tropicana Field.
Boston (63-43) did take an early 3-0 lead when Rafael Devers had an RBI single, and Xander Bogaerts hit a two-run homerun to right center field in the first inning. Choi got a pair right back for Tampa with a long two-run homer in the bottom of the inning. The Rays tied it when Nelson Cruz reached on a fielding error by second baseman Jonathan Arauz allowing Brandon Lowe to score in the third. Mejia put the hosts up 5-3 with a two-run homerun in the fourth, before Bobby Dalbec answered for the Red Sox with a two-run shot of his own in the fifth. Tampa Bay (63-42) took the lead for good when Franco had the game winning RBI triple down the right field line scoring Joey Wendle in the bottom of the sixth. Franco added another RBI single and Mejia a two-run single in the eighth to put it away. Boston had several good chances in the game with the bases loaded including in the sixth with one out and in the seventh with two outs, but couldn’t score in either situation.
Nathan Eovaldi (9-6) took the pitching loss and was hit hard allowing six runs (five earned) on six hits with one walk and six strikeouts in 5.1 innings. It is the first time this season Eovaldi has allowed two homeruns in a game (allowed five in previous 116 innings pitched). Kike Hernandez was the only Boston batter with multiple hits. Choi, Franco, and Mejia all had two hits for Tampa Bay along with their multiple RBI. Andrew Kittredge (7-1) won in relief of starter Ryan Yarbrough. The Sox will try to leapfrog back into first and salvage one game in the series on Sunday night sending RHP Nick Pivetta (8-4, 4.51 ERA) to the bump. The Rays will counter with LHP Shane McClanahan (4-4, 3.93) with first pitch scheduled for 7:08 p.m.
